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The JRC has published the 2014 report of the public consultation, made last december-february, which has collected and analysed answers and feedback from over 700 representatives of private companies, citizens and European organizations, about the state of the art of INSPIRE Directive implementation in Europe.

The report is a comprehensive picture describing delays, obstacles and complexity, but on the other side of concrete results and benefits obtained, and, mainly, of the concordant belief that INSPIRE is a necessary and up-to-date initiative, whose benefits are already clear, and that the Directive represent a great opportunity all European citizens.

To download the report click here

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Better data retrieval and access, greater interoperability of data and improved coordination across the EU top the list of benefits perceived by both data producers and users of spatial information on the environment. Key changes suggested refer to improving communication and coordination, and to reducing the complexity of technical specifications as much as possible.

These are some of the findings of a public consultation carried out by the JRC and the European Commission’s Directorate General Environment (DG ENV) to support a mid-term evaluation of the 2007 INSPIRE Directive which sets the guidelines for the sharing of spatial data for environmental policies and the creation of a pan-European platform by 2020. INSPIRE stands for Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community.

The results of the consultation were presented at the 8th annual INSPIRE Conference, organised by the JRC, DG ENV and the European Environment Agency, which took place from 16 to 20 June in Aalborg, Denmark. Over 550 participants, from 44 countries, came together to discuss their different national INSPIRE implementation strategies and initiatives.

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Source: Joint Research Centre – European Commission

and EOportal

Toulouse, July 1st 2014. During the Toulouse Space Show a networking breakfast “Interregional Cooperation in Aerospace” was organised among major French, Greek and Italian aerospace clusters.

The event aimed to highlight the collaboration among the three clusters: the Aerospace Valley (AV), the Hellenic Space Technologies and Applications Cluster (si-Cluster) and the Apulian Aerospace Cluster (DTA). Moreover, the cooperation aims to offer a networking opportunity for the enterprises of the three clusters.
Following the successful ongoing cooperation, the three clusters signed a letter of intent for a future long cooperation. This represents an important step in the field of interregional cooperation in aerospace.

“Midi-Pyrénée, the Apulia Region, Attika and Western Greece Region believe on the importance for Europe to exploit the Regional dimension of aerospace activities and they consider aerospace as a pillar of their smart regional strategy”, said Giovanni Sylos Labini, BoD of the Apulian Aerospace Cluster, who welcomed the meeting.

This new cooperation aims to highlight that is fundamental to use public resources devoted to aerospace activities in the most efficient manner for the benefits of European citizens.

For the three clusters where present:
• Giuseppe Acierno, President, Apulian Aerospace Cluster
• Marc Péré, President, Chief Operating Officer Aerospace Valley
• Jorge-Andres Sanchez-Papaspiliou, Chief Strategy and Financial Officer, Corallia

From left: Athanasios Potsis, Chairman Hellenic Association of Space Industry; Jorge-Andres Sanchez-Papaspiliou, Chief Strategy and Financial Officer, Corallia; Marc Péré, President, Chief Operating Officer Aerospace Valley; Giuseppe Acierno, President of Apulian Aerospace Cluster.

From left: Giuseppe Acierno, President of Apulian Aerospace Cluster (DTA); Giovanni Sylos Labini, BoD, Apulian Aerospace Cluster

Businesses and research institutions will soon have more reliable access to commercial earth observation satellite data, according to a proposal presented by the European Commission in Brussels today.

It aims to ensure better access to high resolution earth observation satellite data (HRSD) in particular, which, together with HRSD-based applications, are an essential tool for environment monitoring, urban planning, agriculture, natural resources management and disaster and emergency management, as well as for security and defence. Today regulations governing commercial activities using HRSD differ between EU Member States. This situation creates obstacles to market development as it hampers access to data vital by related businesses: including data resellers, data processors, value-adding service providers and software developers. Today´s proposal aims to improve business conditions for such companies in Europe and to partially harmonise rules defining HRSD and related transparency and standards in the EU.

European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, commented that: “The use of satellite imagery is an important and fast growing business. This Directive will facilitate commercial Earth observation and access to satellite data within the EU, accelerating the development of this innovative sector and the creation of new products and services. Our economy will benefit from increased competition by improving free circulation of satellite data throughout the EU.”

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The objective of the Directive on the dissemination of Earth observation satellite for commercial purposes is to facilitate the dissemination of satellite data in Europe and to establish a more reliable access to HRSD, while fully safeguarding security interests. The Directive will achieve these goals by introducing:

  • a common definition of HRSD, specifying which satellite data is considered high resolution and needs regulation and which data is already “business-ready”;
  • common standards for transparency, predictability, legal certainty and fair treatment;
  • common standards for efficiency and business-friendly implementation, in particular regarding the procedures used by Member States to regulate the dissemination of HRSD.

Next steps

This proposal will now be examined by the EU Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. If successful, Member States would then have to adapt their national law, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by end of 2017.

Background

Satellite imagery enables the repeated observation of any region on Earth, at different scales, and without breaching any territory sovereignty. The newest generation of Earth observation satellites offer very high resolution imagery (i.e. objects of less than 0.5 m are visible), daily monitoring and very quick access to the imagery.

Currently, the production and dissemination of HRSD by commercial operators is regulated by the countries in which they are registered. As HRSD regulations differ per country and lack of transparency and predictability, the HRSD value chain and customer businesses encounter difficulties.

The Directive covers the commercial side of EU space policy in Earth observation. It complements the Copernicus programme, which is the EU’s Earth observation programme. Copernicus will ensure the regular observation and monitoring of Earth sub-systems, the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and that will provide reliable, validated and guaranteed information in support of a broad range of environmental and security applications and decisions.

(April2, 2014) China, the Republic of Korea and Japan decided to form a joint research project to make Disaster data and terminology more compatible across the region. Representatives agreed to establish national focal points to support work progress.

After the three-day “Expert Meeting on Disaster Loss and Disaster Risk Reduction Technology Sharing for North-East Asia” the countries asserted in their declaration the importance of disaster statistics and their integration into decision making process.

The forum made several recommendations including: the establishment of a working group to define and categorize disasters under a common terminology; exploring the possibility of a disaster data repository; and the compilation of a reference guide on procedures and protocols pertaining to collection, processing, analyzing and disseminating disaster statistics. UNISDR and other institutions from the region were asked to support the future work in this area.

Read more at UNISDR
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The ability of European citizens, policymakers and service providers to access key environmental data on a routine basis will take a major step forward following the launch today of ESA’s Sentinel-1A satellite.

The 2.3 tonne satellite lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana at 21:02 GMT (23:02 CEST). The first stage separated 118 sec later, followed by the fairing (209 sec), stage 2 (287 sec) and the upper assembly (526 sec).

After a 617 sec burn, the Fregat upper stage delivered Sentinel into a Sun-synchronous orbit at 693 km altitude. The satellite separated from the upper stage 23 min 24 sec after liftoff.

“Sentinel-1A opens a new page in the implementation of Copernicus, the second EU flagship space initiative, after the Galileo positioning system,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.

“The Copernicus programme will provide European citizens with the most ambitious space-based services in the world for environmental and security applications.

“The cooperation between the EU and ESA Member States in the funding of the space infrastructure, the combination of competences and expertise between the European Commission and ESA, and the capabilities of European industry, are putting Europe at the forefront of utilisation of space to benefit citizens, policymakers and the economy.”

The mission is the first of six families of dedicated missions that will make up the core of Europe’s Copernicus environmental monitoring network. Copernicus will provide operational information on the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere to support environmental and security policymaking and the needs of individual citizens and service providers.

Designed as a two-satellite constellation – Sentinel-1A and -1B – the C band radar mission will provide all-weather day-and-night imagery of land and ocean surfaces of Europe, Canada and the polar regions in near real time.

Equipped with a powerful ‘synthetic aperture radar’, it will ensure continuity with the European Envisat satellite, which stopped working in 2012 after 10 years of service. The technology is based on a long heritage of radar satellites, starting with ERS-1 23 years ago.

“The launch of the first Sentinel-1 satellite marks a change in philosophy for our Earth observation programmes,” said Volker Liebig, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes. “In meteorology, satellites have been providing reliable data for weather forecasts for over 35 years.

“With the Copernicus programme, we will now have a similar information source for environmental services as well as for applications in the security and disaster management domain.”

In addition to transmitting data to a number of ground stations around the world for rapid dissemination, Sentinel-1 is also equipped with a laser terminal to transmit data via European Data Relay System satellites in geostationary orbit for continual data delivery.

The satellite’s solar panels and antenna are now being deployed in a complex sequence expected to take around 11 hours. The completion of deployment will be announced at www.esa.int/sentinel-1 and via Twitter @ESA_EO

After the initial ‘launch and early orbit phase’, the satellite will go into the commissioning phase, when all instruments will be checked and calibrated. The mission is expected to begin operations within three months.

Thales Alenia Space Italy is the prime contractor and Airbus DS Germany is responsible for the C band radar. Airbus DS UK supplied the central radar electronics subsystem.

Data from the Sentinel satellites will be provided on a free and open basis. Raw data will be analysed and processed by public and private sector service providers.

Spacedaily
The guardian
Europa.Press
Nature

On 12 March this year, the European Parliament ratified the new European Earth Observation programme with its budget of €4.3 billion, covering the period from 2014 to 2020.

Copernicus is the programme previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) coordinated by the European Commission in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA).

The set of systems making up Copernicus continuously collects data, over the long term, that can then be used for land, marine and atmosphere monitoring, tracking climate change and also for security surveillance (managing natural disasters and keeping track of maritime traffic in particular).

The European Parliamentary debate referred to a host of possible applications, including “data collection on water quality to enable authorities to better protect bathing water and predict algal bloom,” and “collecting data concerning currents, winds and icing at sea, to improve maritime traffic services and search and rescue operations”. Another keenly awaited application focuses on monitoring climate change, with the uninterrupted very-long-term analysis of masses of data to provide the clearest picture yet of the variations in temperatures and levels of seas and oceans, ice-cap melting, solar radiation, flood forecasting, greenhouse gases, etc.

All the data will be collected from a host of ground, sea and atmospheric sensors. Five Sentinel satellite missions will also have a crucial role, forming the cornerstone of the Copernicus programme as they cover a highly extensive field of observation … for 40 years no less!

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[Via Satellite 03-04-2014] Small satellite trends are shifting away from one-time stints and moving toward more regular use in a constellation setting. Sierra Nevada Corporation Vice President of Business Development John Roth told Via Satellite that the company has noticed an increase in the desire to mass produce low-weight satellites. While currently working on Orbcomm’s new constellation of communications satellites (OG2), several potential customers have come to the company with ideas about constellations.


“We’ve probably had a half a dozen companies in the last year or two come to us with ideas about small satellite constellations that they would like to do,” said Roth. “We have non-disclosures so I can’t tell you who the companies are, but most of them are either commercial startups that have some funding already or are working with us to try to get funding from investors to get their concepts off the ground.”

According to Roth, many of these companies were inspired by the strategy Skybox Imaging used, where a small number of satellites are used for technology demonstration purposes in order to draw the attention of investors. Then, after obtaining enough capital, they can quickly move into a production phase.

“We are seeing a number of companies with that same model coming to us and asking us to help support concepts and put together some budgets that they can take to the investor community,” said Roth. “I would think in the next few years you are going to see other commercial companies emerging in the small satellite range.”

The purposes of these satellites vary and are designed to target different niche applications. Some are dedicated to Earth observation missions, others are looking into bands other than electro-optic, while others, such as the joint Taiwan-U.S. Formosat constellation, are looking at weather prediction and other meteorological purposes. The markets represented cover a range of addressable issues.

“There is a trend toward miniaturization in LEO for satellite applications, said Stéphane Gounari, senior analyst at NSR. “[And] not just CubeSats, it is for the whole range. Cube/NanoSats are the extreme … [but] there is a reason why for some applications you have to use big satellites, because you cannot fulfill certain requirements with small satellites.”

Some satellite-enabled services require larger satellites, which are not following the trend toward smaller sizes. Iridium Next satellites, for example, need to have a very strong Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) to connect with handsets, which brings about greater power requirements and drive up the size. According to Gounari, communication satellites are largely missing this miniaturization trend.

“Communications satellites tend to grow in mass,” he explained. “Orbcomm’s satellites are still small but the new constellation is way bigger than the first one (155kg from 45kg). Iridium, Globalstar and O3b start from a higher point but are following the same trend. In that sense, small satellites are used for communications purposes, but the success of the application drives them toward higher mass.”

Orbcomm’s small communication satellites have grown in size, but they are still small, which makes them a unique case. The defining change for small satellites remains that they are serving long-term purposes today, and are expected to play a permanent role going forward. Satellites are polarizing to become either larger by necessity or smaller by opportunity. Based on factors such as launch availability, personnel and financing, the preference toward small satellites has become very noticeable on a global scale.

“Worldwide, there is huge interest in small satellites,” said Roth. “Most countries don’t start out with a U.S.-sized budget for multi-thousand kilogram satellites. Interested countries are not just looking for a first-satellite foothold, they’re looking for space capabilities over the long-term but in affordable programs.”“In terms of market rate … internationally there is a growing interest in small satellites, though there remains a strong interest in the U.S.,” added Gounari.

For now, Sierra Nevada Corp. remains focused on its current contract for 18 satellites with Orbcomm. The first six are scheduled to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in April, with the remaining 12 going up on a second launch later in the year. Benefits like the ability to rapidly install an entire constellation continue to drive satellite operators to make smaller spacecraft when possible. According to Roth, this is a desire satellite manufacturers should be pay a healthy amount of attention.

“I really see growth all the way from CubeSats up to 500 kg size,” he said. “That’s going to be an expanding market for a while.”

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(13 March 2014) The European Commission welcomed today’s vote of the European Parliament on the Copernicus Regulation.

Copernicus, the EU’s Earth Observation Programme, will ensure the regular observation and monitoring of Earth sub-systems, the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and will provide reliable, validated and guaranteed information in support of a broad range of environmental and security applications and decisions. Today’s vote marks a major milestone for Copernicus. Indeed, the adoption of the Regulation paves the way for the continuous development of the programme. This text, which still needs to be adopted by the Council, defines Copernicus objectives, governance and funding (some € 4.3 billion euros) for the period 2014-2020.

European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for industry and entrepreneurship said: “Space is a priority for the Union; the budget for both European flagship space programmes, Copernicus and Galileo, for the next seven years is secured. Almost €12 billion will be invested in space technologies. It is my priority to make sure that this budget will multiply the benefits that European citizens will reap from our space programmes.”

Launch of first Copernicus satellite in April

The Copernicus programme is entering the operational phase after years of preparation. The next step is the launch of the first Copernicus satellite, Sentinel-1, beginning of April from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guyana.

Copernicus will provide Earth observation data

Copernicus will support the vital tasks of monitoring our environment and security by providing Earth observation data. The data provided by this satellite will enable considerable progress in improving maritime security, climate change monitoring and providing support in emergency and crisis situations.

Copernicus opens up business opportunities

Copernicus will also help Europe’s enterprises creating new jobs and business opportunities, namely services for environmental data production and dissemination, as well as the space industry. Indirectly, a variety of other economic segments will see the advantages of accurate and reliable earth observation data, such as transport, oil and gas, insurance and agriculture.

Studies show that Copernicus could generate a financial benefit of some € 30 billion and create around 50.000 jobs in Europe by 2030. Moreover, the open dissemination regime for Copernicus data and service information will help citizens, businesses, researchers and policy makers to integrate an environmental dimension into all their activities and decision-making procedures.

Space activities foster already today the development of a market for satellite-enabled products and services, providing the highly qualified jobs which our industry will need in order to thrive now and in the future.

For more information

(28 March 2014) The French and Chinese space agencies on 27 March confirmed their joint venture in radar ocean-surface research, approving the final construction of a satellite carrying instruments from both nations to be launched in 2018.

The China-French Oceanic Satellite, CFOSat, will carry the French Surface Waves Investigation and Monitoring, or SWIM, instrument, a wave-scatterometer spectrometer that has been under development for several years at the French space agency, CNES.

The China National Space Administration, in addition to providing the CFOSat platform and a launch of the 700-kilogram satellite on a Chinese Long March rocket, will build the SCAT wind-measurement scatterometer.

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